Friday, March 27, 2009

Science awards season heating up

Well the Oscars might be long gone but the science communication awards season is only just beginning...

I've been lucky enough to be asked to be on the jury for the Vedere la Scienza festival in Milan next week and I'm really looking forward to it.

This "International Scientific TV, Film and AV Media Festival" runs from the 30th of March to the 5th of April, 2009, and ...

As in the past editions the festival programme will embrace every scientific fields (physics, mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, natural sciences, …) but the accent will be put on astronomical and biological issues related to the important 2009 anniversaries. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and also sees the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species”.

The production that's nominated tonight is our most recent “Mission 4: Space Robotics” DVD - it's a high-energy teaching tool that covers many aspects of the use of robots in space. It was great fun storyboarding the scenes we were asking the astronauts to film on board the ISS. And I got a buzz when video tapes arrived on my desk still with the velcro on them to stop them floating off in zero gravity!